South Burnett speed cameras ‘purely revenue raising’ says councillor

A South Burnett councillor has gone on the attack against speed cameras positioned across the region after a woman caring for her terminally ill husband copped $1000 in fines.

Councillor Jane Erkens slammed the speed cameras that had led to the fines at the final 2023 ordinary meeting of the South Burnett Regional Council on Wednesday.

Mobile speed cameras have come under fire in the South Burnett where the wife and carer of a terminally ill man was recently hit with $1000 in speeding fines after driving back and forth to chemists and doctors with “only very small increases in speed”.

Councillor Jane Erkens slammed the speed cameras that had led to the fines at the final 2023 ordinary meeting of the South Burnett Regional Council on Wednesday.

The council heard that the cameras, which the community had nicknamed Wally, were nothing more than a “money making revenue raising exercise”.

Indeed, a Facebook page called Where’s Wally? has been established to reveal the location of the cameras to locals, and has more than 1600 followers.

It voted unanimously in favour of writing to the Premier and the Transport Minister to move the cameras to areas of known risk and not where they could be perceived to have a non-safety focus.

Ms Erkens raised the motion and said the fines from cameras were not from people deliberately speeding but from people who were transitioning their speed between 60 and 80km/h zones.

“I just believe that there are a lot more places that these cameras can be located so that they are addressing road safety rather than people who are just slow at dropping their speed coming in or anticipating the speed going out,” she said.

Ms Erkens said she was not aware of any accidents in the 40 years she had lived in the region in the areas the speed cameras were being placed.

South Burnett Regional councillor Jane Erkens said the mobile speed cameras in the region were a “money making revenue raising exercise.” Picture: Dominic Elsome

“They are actually raising millions and millions of dollars on this and it is not, in my opinion, to do with road safety, it is purely a money making revenue raising exercise … and I think it’s taking advantage of a community.

“We are a very, very low socio-economic area and this is impacting very, very badly on our community,” Ms Erkens said.

Councillor Scott Henschen said a lot of communities wanted the speed limits reduced in their towns but agreed the speed cameras were there to raise revenue.

“No doubt it’s reaping revenue and that’s what it is, let’s face it, it’s a revenue raiser,” Mr Henschen said.

He said he supported the motion but was not hopeful they would get the reply they were after.

“The response we get will probably fall on deaf ears,” he said.

Ms Erkens also spoke about a woman who was hit with $1000 worth of fines.

“Yesterday I had to sign some papers for a lady who was driving her husband’s car because he can no longer drive, he is terminally ill, and they had just picked up $1000 worth of fines from where she was ducking backwards and forwards to chemists and doctors for him and only very small increases in speed.

“It wasn’t what anyone would consider speeding and it was not a danger to anyone except her husband who was home sick and waiting for her to get back with medication,” she said.

Originally published as South Burnett speed cameras ‘purely revenue raising’ says councillor